Making Sweet Potato-Pecan Pie

We received and invite from a friend for Sunday supper tomorrow in honor of her husband's "big" birthday. Here's the menu:

• Chicken and dressing
• Roast Pork Loin
• Mac and Cheese (regular and meat)
• Honey Baked Ham
• Corn Muffins
• Pecan Apple Sweet Potatoes
• Broccoli Rice Cheese Casserole
• Mashed Potatoes
• Cole Slaw
• Cake for the birthday boy
• Beer, Champagne and Wine

Think we'll need more starch?

I read it, and immediately thought of the sweet potato-pecan pie I used to do when I baked professionaly. I asked the hostess if she'd like me to bring one. Receiving an enthusiastic "yes," I then realized that I hadn't baked one (ANY pie,) since I quit doing it professionaly about 6 years ago. I almost never bake at home unless it's a special occassion or a friend has a specific request. In a two person household where neither member has a particularly large sweet tooth, we just don't need it around.
Anyway, I was a little nervous, especially since our range/oven is relatively new. I'm crossing my fingers that it sets-up well and doesn't have a soggy bottom crust. I've found that when adapting my recipes from commercial convection ovens to home ovens, timing is always the trickiest adjustment.
Here's how it looks. I'll report back on taste after tomorrow. (Unless it sucks, in which case I won't. Or I'll lie.)
Before going in the oven (I did blind bake the crust for about 15 min. first):


Finished:



Close-Up:


[img][/img

amazing looking...and I'm sure tasting

Can't wait to hear what you thought, it certainly looks tasty - this is one I've thought about myself...though this year I'm leaning towards trying to do a pumpkin/apple butter swirl pie....

What a great menu and excellent pics . . . my ideal meal . . . lots of southern staples.

My favorite pie to make is sweet potato-pecan pie, but I think the recipe I use is different from most I've seen. It's from the Paul Prudhomme cookbook (Paul was the original chef and owner of K-Paul's in New Orleans). It is essentially 1/2 sweet potato pie (the bottom layer) and 1/2 pecan pie (atop the sweet potato layer). Here's the recipe. I alter the recipe, but not too much. My alterations: I use my own crust recipe, I use about 1 1/4 C of sweet potato (1/4 cup more than the recipe calls for), I substitute Steen's Syrup for corn syrup (definitely helps), and I add an additional 1/2 cups of pecans (1 1/4 C instead of 3/4 C).

I just made one last weekend and here is how it came out:







I make a lot of pies, but this tends to be the one that my friends and family prefer that I bake for them (warning: it's sweet!).

Just yesterday my daughter asked oh-so-sweetly for a sweet potato pie at Thanksgiving this year...we had one from Baker's Square about 10 years ago that was great but they don't make them any more.

Anyone care to share great and easy recipes? (Nuts not usually successful among my children or I would ask for the one pictured above!)

I've done one where I just mix pureed cooked sweet potato and sweetened condensed milk. Or do 1/2 sweet potato and 1/2 pumpkin. Spice as you like, or not, if you just want to taste the veggies.

That's my standard squash-or variant: sweetened condensed milk, eggs, vegetable puree, and I usually season with allspice and ginger because I prefer it to nutmeg and cinnamon. It's one of those back-of-the-can recipes.

Yea - pie was a success. Unfortunately, when I whipped out my camera to take pics of the beautiful buffet and sliced pie - dead battery.

BR - fine looking pie!

soujormilk - I grind pecans fine and mix them in with my pie crust. Kids would probably never notice, but adults might appreciate. Then you could just use the sweet potato filling and leave off the nut topping. For one 8 - 8 1/2" pie, I whisk together the following:
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (preferably fresh ground)
2 Tbl molasses
1 1/2 cups baked, peeled, and mashed sweet potatoes
3/4 cup 1/2 & 1/2
2 eggs
2 Tbl bourbon (I used Knob Creek, however, this is totally optional and probably not kiddie friendly.)

BTW, I believe blind baking the crust, weighted, for about 15 min. at 375 degrees is key. But I can't stand a soggy crust.

Best wishes for holiday pie success!! -Lynn

Re: Pecan pies

I've been using David Rosengarten's recipe for pecan pie for years, and everyone says it's the best they've had. The trick is to toast the pecans first, and then use half chopped and half ground. No pecan halves at all. Toasted pecans are throughout the filling in different textures.

Also, his recipe tends to be less sweet.

LynnB wrote:We received and invite from a friend for Sunday supper tomorrow in honor of her husband's "big" birthday. Here's the menu:

• Chicken and dressing
• Roast Pork Loin
• Mac and Cheese (regular and meat)
• Honey Baked Ham
• Corn Muffins
• Pecan Apple Sweet Potatoes
• Broccoli Rice Cheese Casserole
• Mashed Potatoes
• Cole Slaw
• Cake for the birthday boy
• Beer, Champagne and Wine

Think we'll need more starch?

I read it, and immediately thought of the sweet potato-pecan pie I used to do when I baked professionaly. I asked the hostess if she'd like me to bring one. Receiving an enthusiastic "yes," I then realized that I hadn't baked one (ANY pie,) since I quit doing it professionaly about 6 years ago. I almost never bake at home unless it's a special occassion or a friend has a specific request. In a two person household where neither member has a particularly large sweet tooth, we just don't need it around.
Anyway, I was a little nervous, especially since our range/oven is relatively new. I'm crossing my fingers that it sets-up well and doesn't have a soggy bottom crust. I've found that when adapting my recipes from commercial convection ovens to home ovens, timing is always the trickiest adjustment.
Here's how it looks. I'll report back on taste after tomorrow. (Unless it sucks, in which case I won't. Or I'll lie.)
Before going in the oven (I did blind bake the crust for about 15 min. first):


Finished:



Close-Up:


[img][/img

First can I say you can never ever have enough starch. If I would have had the time, biscuits would have been made too

As for the pie, it was such a huge hit (many thanks). People who got to sample it rave about it. My niece had a piece at dinner and then proceeded to eat two of the three pieces I had squirreled away for breakfast (didn't know about the Knobb but it didn't seem to bother her).